2 years, 2 months, and 2 weeks after the Kia Incident – where some idiot made a left turn in front of me, I broadsided him, and 195/2000 was totalled by the insurance company – I got rear-ended in 464/1000 by someone in a Jetta on my way home from work.
In typical, Phoenix rush hour fashion, I’m completely stopped – in the fast lane – on Interstate 17 on my way home from work today. The car ahead of me begins to pull away. I ease off the clutch and start to give it some gas when BAM! I’m flat on my back and staring at the headliner.
The AC is still pumping out cool air, the engine is still idling, I’m listening to All Things Considered. I notice the shade cover for the moonroof is now opened about 3 inches as I turn around to see what happened. Guy behind me in a black Jetta is looking dumbfounded; like he doesn’t know what happened either. I figure someone rear-ended him, slamming him into me.
Nope. He just wasn’t paying attention and straight smacked me at something like 40mph or so.
When I clipped that Kia two years ago, I remember thinking, “Wow. That impact didn’t feel so bad. How can there be all that damage?” This one hurt pretty good. 3 hours later and my neck isn’t as sore as my back, going down my left side. Earlier, I could feel where my neck muscles attach to the sides of my head. Ugh. I’m okay though. I guess.
Dude and I pull off the highway, slowly, and roll into a parking lot. When we get out, we’re both amazed at how little damage there is. I ask if he wants to call the police or should I, he says we probably should, because he’s got chest pains and think he might have broke a rib. Starts dialing.
I stand back and wait for him to get off the phone with the police. Start snapping pictures of the cars. At first, just his car, him on the phone, his license plate, and so on. He gets off the phone and asks me if I called the police. I told him I thought he said he was doing that and he dials again.
Next thing you know, the fire department is on the scene, checking him out to make sure he doesn’t need an ambulance. I tell them I’ll take some Tylenol, get some sleep, and check with my doctor if things get worse, but don’t suspect any life threatening injury; just a very sore neck and whatnot.
Arizona DPS (Department of Public Safety – kinda like the Highway Patrol or State Troopers in other states) shows up and collects documentation from us both. License, insurance, registration – the usual. When the officer asks what happened, this guy says I just stopped all of the sudden and he hit me maybe doing 5mph or so.
Um, I disagree.
Officer asks me what happened. I advise. Say that it had to be more than 5mph because I have a crooked trunk, jacked bumper, and obvious “frame” damage. (Galants are unibody cars and do not have actual frames.) Officer comes around to my side of the car, where I point out the damage, then hands me a report and says to call my insurance company and have a better evening.
So here’s the damage.
It might not look like much at first, but it’s enough. $1500 in damage to his $15,000 Volkswagen is no big deal, but $1500 in damage to my Galant – which we all know the insurance company will say is only worth $800 – is another thing altogether. I’ve been down this road before. It’s going to be a fight. I hope I’m ready.
Below: Bumper cover is damaged, very likely the bumper itself underneath is damaged as well. Notice the cover sagging on the driver side. Not good. Means the bumper is pushed in and down.
Below: I don’t think the trunk’s mangled so much as the unibody beneath it. Notice the gap. It’s not that the trunk is shifted, but the unibody has been torqued towards the driver side.
Below: Now check out the gap between the trunk and the fender/quarter panel. See how it’s larger than the other side? The actual body of the car has been pushed towards the driver side.
Below: The back seat seems to be a bit unhappy too.
Below: Here’s where we get into the disturbing stuff. The rear quarter panel has been pushed forward into the door. It still opens and closes, but no amount of door adjustment is going to fix this.
Below: The picture that sealed the deal. That’s a buckle in the pillar. When the rear quarter panel was being pushed forward, the roof tried to hold it in place. The pillar buckled at the leading edge because the metal began to bunch up there.
Now, I’ve cut the nose off Galants before. I’ve matched up replacement sections of unibody pretty good, but to fix this, I suspect it would involve removing the trunk, most of the glass in the car, and trying to pull the entire unibody back over towards the passenger side. No easy task, and not one I think I’m equipped to handle.
Tomorrow morning, I go to the adjusters to have 464 checked out. I already know what they’re going to say. If you get more than about $500 worth of damage done to your Galant VR4, you better expect a fight. They’re going to total the car out and offer me something like $800.
Here goes nothing…
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